Textbooks - The Real Price Gouging

How many of you feel like you are paying too much for your textbooks right now?? Same here. I mean we are constantly complaining about gas prices, but textbooks prices are the real deal. Considering that college-goers consists of a big part of America, I wonder why no action has been taken yet against textbook companies.

Some things to consider:

- Textbooks have a worse resale value than cars. After one semester (six months) your school will buy the book back at 50% or less of the original price. If a new edition is coming out, you get zero. Even a car would not lost half its value for at least 2 years.

- Many textbook companies are paying our professors a fraction of their sales, in return the professors make their textbooks "mandatory".

- There aren't usually a lot of changes from edition to edition, yet the prices either stays the same or goes higher. Don't tell it's overhead.

------------------------------------------------------So who's with me when I say why should we pay an arm and a leg for a book that we will only read a week before the finals??!!!

*please refrain from trying to raise your post count by 1 if you dont have anything to add.* (esp. that healing professional)

Re: Textbooks - The Real Price Gouging

I have to agree with you on the outrageous prices. At the university I go to there have been multiple protest actions about that. The university has contracts with a bookstore around here which means they have a complete monopoly on the prices of many books and textbooks.

Re: Textbooks - The Real Price Gouging

Originally Posted by Hassun

I have to agree with you on the outrageous prices. At the university I go to there have been multiple protest actions about that. The university has contracts with a bookstore around here which means they have a complete monopoly on the prices of many books and textbooks.

Now the problem becomes global. Sad thing is, you used to be able to sell your books on amazon.com for a more reasonable price. But more and more ppl use it so they also drive the prices down.

Re: Textbooks - The Real Price Gouging

I have to agree. Semester after semester it seems all my money goes to texts books then at the end of the semester I stand in line for hours hoping that they will buy the book. I got a couple of my texts books on ebay but the problem with that is that if you drop the class your stuck with the book. It really is insane, my chemistry book last year alone cost me 200.00.

Re: Textbooks - The Real Price Gouging

Half the time there are new releases that are mandatory to buy, so you can barely ever get them used. And if you try to sell them back to the school's bookstore, they only give you like 15&#37; of the original price. I bought a 90 dollar book last semester... didn't use it and tried selling it back and they only offered me 20 dollars for it.

It's cheaper to buy it used online because even the used books at the bookstores are still expensive as hell.

Re: Textbooks - The Real Price Gouging

I fully agree. I have a BA and had to pay out the nose for my textbooks here at little Kent Ashtabula. They have a buy-back at the end of each semester and you normally get $5 to $10 for a book that costed $100 or so. Then, in the next semester in which they use the books, the sell them used for around $60 to $70. It's rediculous.

Re: Textbooks - The Real Price Gouging

Originally Posted by gamemaster331

I fully agree. I have a BA and had to pay out the nose for my textbooks here at little Kent Ashtabula. They have a buy-back at the end of each semester and you normally get $5 to $10 for a book that costed $100 or so. Then, in the next semester in which they use the books, the sell them used for around $60 to $70. It's ridiculous.

What a scam, so the school would make like $150 or $160 total. Yeah id call that highway robbery.

Re: Textbooks - The Real Price Gouging

I used to buy used whenever possible. I would find a book that had been marked up by someone who looked like they knew what they were doing. It really made a difference in my studying and saved money too.

Can't find it used... e-bay helps but the higher you get in education the more they seemed to cost and the harder to find.

The book companies claim that the reason they have to sell them for so much is because everyone resells them and they have to charge more in order to make a profit. SO remember, it's the fault of people like me who buy used books.